Peter Capaldi thought he'd missed out on Doctor Who because of his age

(Image credit: BBC/Steve Brown)

Peter Capaldi says he assumed he would be too old to be offered the starring role in Doctor Who.

The 56-year-old actor, whose first full series as the Time Lord will screen later this month, told Entertainment Weekly that he had never expected to get the chance to play his dream role.

He admitted: "I wouldn't have thought I would be the guy. I wouldn't have thought it would be me. Because of my age. I would have thought they were automatically heading younger."

Peter's predecessor Matt Smith was 26 when he was cast, David Tennant before him was 34, and Christopher Eccleston bagged the role at 41.

But Doctor Who executive producer and writer Steven Moffat said Peter's age had been a help: "I did say, 'No, we probably won't end up with another quirky young man.'

"I didn't think there was any space around Matt to have another Doctor of that kind, because he sort of sums up what you could do with that. I very, very quickly, very quickly just thought about Peter. There is no right age to be the Doctor."

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.